Stepping inside BMW’s Designworks studio in California, you instantly sense why this place has formed so many pivotal BMW merchandise. The studio feels extra like a workshop than a company design workplace — clay fashions in varied states of evolution, fast bodily mockups scattered throughout tables, and 3D printers operating consistently. Nothing stays digital for lengthy. Concepts change into objects right here, and due to that, Designworks typically sees what BMW must do lengthy earlier than Munich does.
It was throughout a latest behind-the-scenes session on the studio that the origins of certainly one of BMW’s most vital automobiles got here into focus. Because the crew revisited early initiatives, the frequent thread grew to become unmistakable: the BMW X5 wasn’t simply formed in California — it exists due to California.
Adrian van Hooydonk, BMW Group’s head of design, and Hussain Al-Attar, Inventive Director at Designworks, made the connection express. “The inception of the X5 was a serious start line,” Al-Attar mentioned, reflecting on the second BMW first acknowledged the dimensions of the SUV alternative in america. As we speak the X5 is a cornerstone of the portfolio, typically outselling even the X3, in line with Van Hooydonk. However within the early Nineties, the thought of a BMW SUV wasn’t universally embraced inside the corporate. BMW was additionally late to the social gathering. Jeep had already remodeled the market with the Grand Cherokee in 1992. By the point the first-generation X5 arrived in 1999, BMW had floor to make up.
How Land Rover’s Acquisition Led To The BMW X5
The turning level might be traced to 1994 — a yr when two main occasions quietly set the X5 in movement. BMW acquired Land Rover, which instantly pressured the corporate to think about how an off-road-capable car would possibly coexist with BMW’s conventional emphasis on on-road dynamics. That very same yr, BMW additionally accomplished its acquisition of Designworks. What Munich gained wasn’t simply one other design studio; it gained a cultural antenna pointed immediately on the U.S. West Coast through the largest SUV increase the nation had ever seen.
BMW requested Designworks to discover what a BMW SUV could possibly be, and the outcomes got here rapidly. The studio’s early sketches of what would change into Venture E53 have been astonishingly near the manufacturing automotive. Even the primary drawing — together with a sharply angled Hofmeister kink — already captured the proportions and stance that might outline the X5. The task then shifted to Munich the place designer Chris Chapman, who had joined Designworks after a number of years at Isuzu, started shaping the X5’s kind alongside Chris Bangle.
Chapman’s affect was essential. His background within the SUV and truck world gave him a perspective BMW designers in Germany didn’t have. On the time, some inside BMW nonetheless thought their SUV could possibly be small — one thing nearer to a Kia Sportage. Chapman pushed again firmly. If BMW wished to reach America, he argued, the proportions wanted to be nearer to a Jeep Grand Cherokee. A BMW SUV that appeared too compact merely wouldn’t resonate with U.S. consumers.
The Design Course of
That insistence led to numerous bodily checks, a lot of them carried out or initiated at Designworks. Hussein Al-Attar, Inventive Director at Designworks LA, recalled how early proportion research have been generally constructed from improvised supplies. “We use some very subtle high-tech strategies,” he joked, “placing automobiles on blocks and including faux wheels to them… simply to see how a smaller X5 would possibly look, or one thing sportier. These have been experiments.”
These experiments weren’t restricted to experience top or monitor width. Some early mockups positioned the growing E53 subsequent to a full-size GMC pickup truck so Munich-based executives may perceive simply how massive American SUVs actually have been. Different prototypes exaggerated wheel dimension or stance merely to power conversations about scale. The purpose wasn’t to design a caricature — it was to make sure BMW understood the realities of the U.S. market, realities far faraway from the streets of Munich.
Van Hooydonk defined why these bodily comparisons have been so vital. “Typically we simply must create a mannequin,” he mentioned, “put it on the market subsequent to present automobiles… after which folks can start to know.” California didn’t simply provide sketches; it pressured the corporate to see proportions in actual area.
By 1996, BMW accepted the design course and froze the styling — an unusually early freeze, happening practically three years earlier than the beginning of manufacturing. The ultimate exterior was refined below Frank Stephenson, however Chapman’s early imaginative and prescient remained largely intact. Design patents adopted in 1998, setting the stage for a 1999 debut.
Extra X Fashions Had been Designed in California
Because the years handed, the affect of Designworks solely grew. Al-Attar famous that “with just some exceptions, many of the X automobiles have been designed right here in California… first X5, first-gen X3, second-gen X3, first-gen X1, present X5, present X7.” The studio didn’t merely contribute to the X lineup; it grew to become its driving power.
Because the dialog at Designworks expanded, van Hooydonk supplied perception into why California ended up shaping so a lot of BMW’s X automobiles. All BMW designs, he defined, are developed via inside competitions between studios in Munich, Shanghai, and California. However the X automobiles saved popping out of California. “Normally, the X automobiles have been received by the California studio,” he mentioned. “Possibly as a result of they perceive this way of life. They dwell it.”
That understanding translated into measurable affect. “The X vary is now half of our portfolio,” van Hooydonk famous, declaring that the majority BMW SUVs are inbuilt Spartanburg, which has change into BMW’s largest international plant and, remarkably, the largest exporter of automobiles in america—bigger than any American automaker’s particular person export quantity. “Lots has occurred because the very first X5,” he mentioned, “and that was an initiative from Designworks.”
Designworks Performs a Main Position within the BMW Design Course of
He went on to explain Designworks’ distinctive function inside BMW’s design construction. Whereas the studio competes in all main car applications, it additionally has the liberty—and the accountability—to determine “white areas” in BMW’s lineup. The unique X5 was one. The XM was one other. A few of these proposals arrive too early, he admitted, however timing is a part of the method. “Typically you’re too early with that,” he mentioned. “Doesn’t matter. Typically you experience on the proper second in time. The XM took a little bit bit longer than the crew most likely would have favored, however ultimately, we obtained there.”
Then got here his most revealing line, the one which explains the studio’s ethos extra clearly than any organizational chart: “I all the time inform the crew we have to have extra concepts than the corporate can construct, as a result of the other can be very unhealthy.”
Trying again, the arrival of the X5 marked the second when BMW stopped viewing SUVs as an exterior development and commenced seeing them as a core a part of the model. “Then X3 got here proper after,” van Hooydonk mentioned, “then a complete vary of X got here.” The X5 grew to become the blueprint — not just for proportions and design language however for understanding that California, and the American market basically, held insights BMW couldn’t afford to disregard.
X5 – One of many Most Profitable BMW Product
Seen via that lens, the X5 was greater than a profitable product. It was an indication of what occurs when BMW listens to its California studio—a studio that builds concepts early, checks them bodily, reads American roads with intuition, and pushes the corporate towards segments it would in any other case miss.
As we speak the X5 stands as certainly one of BMW’s defining automobiles, a world bestseller that reshaped Spartanburg, expanded BMW’s identification, and adjusted the corporate’s trajectory. But its origins stay unmistakably Californian—born in a studio filled with clay, foam, improvised wheels, and designers who noticed the way forward for the SUV lengthy earlier than Munich did.
And as van Hooydonk reminded the crew, that’s precisely what Designworks is supposed to do.
[Photos: Ryan Postas]
